GM's New BOD Chairman: I'm Not Leaving San Antonio

by Robert Farago

Published: June 24th, 2009

gm s new bod chairman i m not leaving san antonio

The “hands off” Presidential Task Force on Automobiles has chosen Ed Whitacre Jr., formerly of Southwestern Bell, to become New GM’s New Chairman of the Board. The appointment is still go, despite Whitacre’s admission that “I know nothing about cars.” Anyone fearing for Whitacre’s ongoing ignorance of all things automotive can breathe a sigh of relief today, as the BOD jeffe told the San Antonio Business Journal that he has no intention of re-locating to Motown to oversee the men and women spending tens of billions of U.S. tax dollars to “reinvent” GM. “This is my city,” Whitacre told the local press. “I’m not moving.”

Robert Farago

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4 of 55 comments

Derm81 on Jun 25, 2009

It is simply much each easier to bring the country (Mulally) to you rather than take yourself to another part of the nation....especially when there are hundreds if not thousands of jobs.

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Pch101 on Jun 25, 2009
So you are saying a whole State is ignorant? The management teams certainly are. They drive Buicks on roads surrounded by other Buicks, and then falsely believe that this is what Americans want. That isn't what Americans want, obviously. What these people need is to spend time driving on the 280 and 405, and get a clue when they realize that the only people driving their cars just came from an airport rental counter. Who said that California gets to dictate what I want to drive? No one did, so quit with the strawman routine and try to understand what's up. Californians tend to lead the country in creating vehicle tastes. Nobody has to follow California's car culture, but they often choose to follow. Not every trend makes it out of the west coast, but if you find a trend ending up in the South, then it's probably everywhere else in the country outside of MI. A car company trying to predict the future had better be in California and sorting out which trends are going to take and which one's are just fads that won't. The imposition comes from Detroit, which insists on trying to sell cars that people outside of Michigan apparently don't want. Of course, consumers are free to choose, and they respond by buying other cars that they actually do want. Meanwhile, Detroit accuses them of being unpatriotic, instead of meeting their wants, before begging for handouts. look at the shift in political power. Let's not. We're talking about cars here. You're trying to confuse it with politics, when the business issue here is what consumers want and are going to want, not for whom they're voting.

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Derm81 on Jun 25, 2009
Let’s not. We’re talking about cars here When you bring up your tax dollars, then YES, you are talking about politics whether you like it or not....didnt you just mention the following: if my tax dollars are going to prop it up, If that is not a strawman argument I dont know what is.

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Tparkit on Jun 25, 2009

The new chairman is a purely political animal. That's why he was selected. To do the job he was hired for, the only place he need consider relocating to is Washington DC. Likewise, he does not need to know anything about cars. He need only know what the Democrats want to have happen in the auto industry, in the energy industry, the Green placibo industry, and for labor unions. Look for him to discover the wisdom of windmills, light rail transit, solar panels, carbon capture, cap-&-trade, and the "need" for maintaining at any price a US heavy industrial base. Every other word out of his mouth will be "renewable" or "sustainable".

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